Geoff,

What we do is exclude the Oracle database files from backups,
then our nightly hot and weekly cold Oracle "backups" use the
archive function of TSM. We set up a separate Oracle management
class and that archive copy group has very different retention
policies than the rest of the management classes (30 versions
retained for 30 days). As part of our TSM bootstrap process on
the clients, we log in to any local Oracle databases and
dynamically build a list of files to be excluded for that node.

 -- Tom

Thomas A. La Porte
DreamWorks Animation
tlaporte AT anim.dreamworks DOT com

On Fri, 16 Nov 2001, Gill, Geoffrey L. wrote:

>Will someone please explain the pitfalls of changing the include/exclude
>list as it relates to this issue. We have a server that is running Oracle.
>There is no TDP for True64 so we're stuck with what we have, the client.
>Backing up open Oracle files is a waste of time because we know from testing
>restores they are no good. I've suggested to the admins to exclude those
>open files from nightly backups because of this. We're talking about
>60-70GB. This times 21, the number of versions they have for me is a lot of
>space.
>
>I'd like to know if my understanding is correct. If a file is not in the
>exclude list then it's backed up, that's an easy one. If it's changed
>nightly and been backed up for 3 weeks I have 21 copies. If I now exclude
>the file it's not backed up any longer, however what happens to the 21
>copies I have in place? Are they all expired immediately except the last one
>and removed from the system?
>
>The problem is we "would" be stopping the database on weekends and getting
>good backups. If editing the exclude list would force the good copies to go
>away then we could not live with that. If there is a way to exclude them
>some days and then include them other days and still keep 21 good copies
>then would someone please help me to accomplish this. I'm to the point I can
>use all the free space I can, got about 20 clients that need backups but I
>don't have the space yet.
>
>Thanks for the help.
>
>Geoff Gill
>TSM Administrator
>NT Systems Support Engineer
>SAIC
>E-Mail:   gillg AT saic DOT com
>Phone:  (858) 826-4062
>Pager:   (888) 997-9614
>
>